


Far Away, I Miss You

by kota_lights



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Getting Together, Haikyuu - Freeform, I Will Go Down With This Ship, I'm Bad At Summaries, I'm Bad At Tagging, Inarizaki, Karasuno, Long-Distance Relationship, M/M, MSBY Black Jackals - Freeform, Onigiri Miya, OsaYama, Post-Time Skip, Pre-Time Skip, Schweiden Adlers - Freeform, Slight Canon Divergence, Volleyball
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-22
Updated: 2021-01-26
Packaged: 2021-03-15 15:07:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,947
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28815393
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kota_lights/pseuds/kota_lights
Summary: ( ON HIATUS )Yamaguchi Tadashi finds himself being Osamu Miya's confidante for a night, and that one night turns into a memory that neither will forget for years to come.
Relationships: Hinata Shouyou & Miya Atsumu, Miya Osamu/Yamaguchi Tadashi
Comments: 16
Kudos: 51





	1. Talk To Me, Stranger

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you all like this! OsaYama is one of my favorite rarepairs and so I decided to write a fic for them. You can also find this on my Wattpad! My username is -kotalights !!

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"I'll be fine, Yachi, thank you," Yamaguchi smiled in the shorter manager's direction, slipping his arms through the sleeves of his jacket and adjusting the scarf around his neck. "I'll be back in a bit. I just need to... Clear my head, I guess. You know... The loss, it's..."

"Oh..." Yachi frowned, glancing around. "Everyone's asleep, are you sure you don't want to wait until tomorrow morning?"

"I'm sure," he nodded. "Will you cover for me? If anyone wakes up? Just say I went to the bathroom or something."

"W-What?! How long will you be gone?!" Yachi grabbed his arm nervously, glancing around like someone would hear them. "You shouldn't go alone! I'll go wake up Tsukishima, okay?! I'll be right b━"

"No!" Yamaguchi whisper-yelled. "Don't get Tsukki! Look," he sighed. "I need to do this. To clear my head before we go home, alright? You're the only one who knows, and I'll have my phone on the whole time. It's on seventy-nine percent, the battery is fine enough that if you get too worried, you can call me. If I don't answer, then tell Coach or Takeda-sensei. Just... Don't wake the others up."

Yachi bit her lip, nodding hesitantly. "Promise?"

"You're one of my best friends besides Tsukki and the other first years," Yamaguchi chuckled. "I promise I'm not lying to you."

"I don't get how you're not scared to go out there on your own!" she shivered, and Yamaguchi could tell what she was thinking just by the look on her face as it faded from her normal skin tone to a sickly pale.

Yamaguchi shrugged, a bit disheartened. "I guess I'm too upset to be nervous this time," he said. "I really thought we'd get farther, you know? We were so close, but Kamomedai..."

"Yeah," Yachi frowned, looking like she was about to cry again. "Okay, you can go. But if you're not back soon, I'm going to call you! And if you don't answer, I'm assuming the worst!"

"Thanks, Yachi. I owe you one."

"Be careful, alright?"

"I will," Yamaguchi smiled.

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The January air bit at the skin of Yamaguchi's cheeks as he stepped outside the Jaybird Inn. City lights and sounds and smells overwhelmed him as they had every time that him and his team had been outside since they'd arrived in the busier parts of Tokyo. He had no idea where anything was outside of their hotel, since most of the time they traveled by bus and he'd either been sleeping or scrolling through social media on his phone and he hadn't paid attention, but Yamaguchi didn't really care where he was going, neither did he care how far he went. 

Of course, all of Karasuno was taking the loss hard. Hinata felt horrible that he'd collapsed midway into the second set, insisted that he was fine enough to keep playing though it was obvious to them after his collapse that they'd all missed the signs of the absolute exhaustion that led to his fever. Yamaguchi also felt guilty, since he and Hinata had spent a lot of time together since they'd arrived in Tokyo and he hadn't suspected a thing. Not the increasingly darkening circles beneath his eyes, the lines of stress growing on his forehead, the few times he'd zoned out for minutes at a time, none of it.

They were scheduled to leave the next morning, the coaches nice enough to grant them an extra night to accept that they'd lost before they were sent back home to Miyagi to go back to nothing but unfeeling apologies from people who had no idea how they felt about losing the match. How guilty the first and second years felt that they couldn't keep their third years on the court until the end. 

Yamaguchi adjusted his scarf again. The cold January winds had blown it out of place, and Yamaguchi lifted it back up to cover the lower half of his face to try and block out some of the freezing air. 

Living in Miyagi his whole life, Tokyo was a completely different scene than he was used to. All of the bright lights shining through the city at all hours of the day and through the nights, compared to the simple streetlights and maybe a convenience store sign here and there from his hometown, it was a bit of a shock to Yamaguchi's senses. He'd gone on walks before after losses back home, short and calm and quiet save the sounds of what small things lurked in the shadows like owls or stray cats, sometimes the sound of the winds whistling through trees. But in Tokyo, it was bustling and busy at all times. Laughter from groups of friends on a night out, cars honking in traffic, it was a totally different atmosphere than what he was used to.

Sure, he'd been to Tokyo before, but only for a training camp at Shinzen High, where they stayed for the entirety of the time and never left. Yamaguchi didn't really like to count that as a visit to the big city.

He glanced upward into the inky darkness of the night, seeing barely a quarter of the stars he would have seen were he back home in Miyagi. A shame, the stars had always been a source of comfort for Yamaguchi when he was down. He'd always loved the stars. Bright little dots of white spotting a canvas of dark, navy blue. They were a mesmerizing source of distraction for him in times when he was overwhelmed, whether it be from the loss of a game like this one, or some other stressor in his life, he always relied on the stars.

Yamaguchi should have known that looking upward while he was walking was a bad idea, but his brain was too muddled with guilt over the game that he hadn't been paying as much attention as he should have. He walked right into another person, feeling his head spin from the impact while he'd been looking upward instead of forward and hearing the grunt of surprise from the person.

An hand reached out to grab his bicep as he lost his balance, his heels scrambling for purchase on the sidewalk. Yamaguchi sighed in relief that he hadn't gone plummeting to the concrete, and he looked to his savior with a thankful gaze, opening his mouth to apologize for his lack of attention before pausing at the recognition of the person he'd walked into.

Miya Osamu stared at him with tired eyes, his hand clutching a white bag of takeout food that had been slightly crushed at the impact, and Yamaguchi found himself stuttering out a late apology. "S-Sorry, Miya-san. I should have been paying attention. I-Is that your dinner? I'm so sorry, I can pay to get you new food, how much was━"

"It's fine," Yamaguchi's efforts were waved off. "Karasuno's pinch server, right? Number twelve."

"Yeah... That's me. You remember?"

"My brother dragged me to yer game yesterday against the cats," Osamu nodded. "Ya did good out there. And in today's match, too."

"T-Thanks," Yamaguchi rubbed the back of his neck, embarrassed at the unexpected, random praise. "You were really awesome in our game the other day, too, Miya-san."

Osamu gave a small smile and nodded in thanks, before he sighed through his nose and shoved one of his hands in his jacket pocket to get out his phone as it pinged, his face falling into a frown once more before he clicked the power button and put it back in his pocket.

Yamaguchi took a closer look at Osamu. Throughout their game against one another, when he had observed from the sidelines and watched the Miya twins together as the rest of their team had, he noticed that while the other always supported an excited grin or frustrated grimace when they won or lost points, Osamu's face normally remained pretty neutral and somewhat bored unless his brother had said or done something annoying. His face now was somewhat the same as it had been throughout most of the times Yamaguchi had seen him before, except now it seemed more down. Somewhat forlorn, even.

He was hesitant to ask, considering that they didn't know each other all that well and were from different teams that didn't particularly like each other much after their last match ended, but Yamaguchi could practically feel guilt and stress oozing off of Osamu. He could feel it as much as he felt the same emotions from himself.

"Are you alright, Miya-san?"

Osamu looked down at Yamaguchi, the boy being only slightly shorter by give or take four centimeters, and he sighed again. Longer this time, Yamaguchi could hear the distress in it. "No," he said simply. "Not really."

It was quiet for a second, and Yamaguchi wondered why the Miya twin had yet to leave. The crushed bag of food in his hand was probably getting colder the longer he stood outside in the drafts of the January winds, and his cheeks were pinched rosy from the cold. He wore nothing to keep extra warm, just a simple maroon throw hoodie and black sweatpants, and Yamaguchi wondered how in the world Osamu wasn't shivering and chittering like he would have been had he not grabbed his scarf and gloves before he left.

"Do you..." Yamaguchi hesitated, hoping not to overstep any boundaries. "I've heard that it's better to talk to strangers than familiars, because a stranger has no attachment to you like a familiar does. If you want to, you can talk about whatever it is. No offense, Miya-san, but you look like you could use it. It's totally up to you, though! I-I'm not trying to be pushy..."

There was silence after Yamaguchi's offer, and he fiddled nervously with a loose string on the tip of one of his gloved fingers. He could see the contemplative glare in Osamu's eyes, questioning whether or not if he should really indeed do so. Questioning himself or the offer, Yamaguchi couldn't be sure.

A sigh was released, and Osamu nodded his head to the side with a glance at Yamaguchi. A signal to walk alongside him, so they wouldn't be in the way of other passerby anymore.

Yamaguchi scrambled to follow, catching up rather easily. "W-Where are we going?"

Osamu shrugged. "Somewhere quieter. If yer gonna let me talk to ya, I wanna be somewhere quiet."

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If anyone would have told him that his walk to clear his head would end up with him sitting alone on a park bench with Miya Osamu in the middle of the night, Yamaguchi probably would have laughed in their face and told them they were being stupid. But there he was, in exactly that position. Alone on a park bench at half-past midnight with one of the Miya twins, snacking on a crushed onigiri from the bag of food Osamu had been carrying when he bumped into him, since he'd offered to share.

"Have ya ever had a secret, number twelve?"

The question came out of nowhere, and Yamaguchi was startled to hear Osamu's voice after sitting for a bit in silence while they ate. "You can call me Yamaguchi," he said first. "And no, not that I can think of. Have you, Miya-san?"

"...Yeah, I have. I do, and its been stressin' me out. Just call me Osamu, please. Miya-san could be either me or my brother so people just use our first names."

"Osamu, then," Yamaguchi nodded, wiping his hands on a napkin from the food bag after finishing his onigiri. "Does anyone else know the secret, Osamu?"

"Nah. Haven't told anyone yet. Yer the first person to notice somethin' was up, so thanks for that, I guess."

"Ah," Yamaguchi flushed. "Sorry? My best friend is the 'suffer alone with my inner turmoil' kind of guy, so it's kinda hard _not_ to notice sometimes."

Osamu chuckled and leaned back, slumping against the back of the wooden bench and locking his fingers behind his head. "I'm quittin' volleyball after high school. I don't know how to tell Tsumu about it. He won't understand."

Yamaguchi turned to look at Osamu, surprised. The Miya twins were one of the most known duos in high school volleyball throughout the country, so it was shocking to hear that one of them wouldn't continue on after graduating. "Why do you want to quit? If I can ask."

There was a silence after the question. Osamu's eyes closed as he breathed in deep, and Yamaguchi settled back next to him and locked his gaze on the stars above them, deciding against keeping it on Osamu since it could get awkward if he kept staring while he waited for Osamu's answer. He was patient, and Osamu was surprisingly easy to be around even in the quiet of the night by themselves. Normally it would feel awkward between two strangers, but with Osamu's laid back and seemingly non-caring attitude about the situation, it made it easier for Yamaguchi to relax.

"I love volleyball," Osamu finally opened his eyes. "It's fun, I'm good at it, I've got teammates I can rely on, all that good stuff." He paused again. "But it's not what I see myself doin' in my future. Not what I know will make me happy. I want a happy life where I can do somethin' I enjoy, and playin' volleyball until I'm at a retirin' age is somethin' I know won't give me that. Tsumu, yeah, but not me."

"What are you thinking of, then?" Yamaguchi asked him.

No hesitation was in Osamu's voice when he answered. "Somethin' in the food industry. I want to open my own restaurant one day. Tsumu likes to make fun of the fact that I'm always thinkin' of food," he chuckled. "But I've been thinkin' about this for a while now. I'm really good at makin' my own onigiri, I've looked for jobs in our area where I can work and go to business school on the side, and there's plenty of restaurants near where we live that I could work at."

"If it makes you happy, you should go for it," Yamaguchi shrugged. "I honestly don't think I'll stay with volleyball either, but I'm only a first year so I still have time to decide. If you're sure that you want to go into the food industry, then that's what you should do."

"Mm." Osamu hummed. "What've ya thought of besides volleyball? Anythin'?"

"I don't know yet," Yamaguchi sighed.

"Well what do ya like to do besides play? When yer not in practice?"

Yamaguchi couldn't be surprised when his first thoughts after being asked the question were the names of different constellations. _Orion, Caelum, Lepus, Taurus_. Those were just a few of the ones that he could normally see if he were back home in Miyagi, where there was less light pollution to block the skies, but here in Tokyo he couldn't see more than dusted freckles of light on the dark face of the night.

"The stars," he replied.

The shuffle of Osamu's jacket could be heard as he turned his head toward Yamaguchi. "Ya do the stars? How does that make any sense━"

"No, no," Yamaguchi laughed, waving his hands in front of himself before rewording. "I _love_ the stars. I don't know what it is about them. Maybe it started because of their beauty, maybe it was the stories and myths that our ancestors gave them, I'm not sure. But I've always loved the stars."

"Maybe ya should major in astronomy, then," Osamu tells him. "That's got to do with the stars, right?"

"I've thought about it," Yamaguchi grins. "Tohoku University has a good undergrad astronomy and geophysics course, from what I've heard and seen from online reviews. What about you? Have you checked out any colleges?"

"Nah. I've still got another year. Still gotta figure out how to tell 'Tsumu I'm not going pro with him. It's hard."

"You don't think he'd be supportive?"

Osamu went quiet, and Yamaguchi took his silence as the answer to his question. 

"I think..." Osamu started, gaining Yamaguchi's attention again as he looked over at the grey-haired Miya. "I think one day, he could be. But anytime soon, I don't see it happening. His brain circles around one-hundred percent volleyball and stayin' on the court. He'll be mad that I'm quittin'. Probably think I'm abandonin' him. It's how he is. He's overdramatic in that way, always has been."

"I know some guys like that, too," Yamaguchi chuckled. "They're like monsters when it comes to volleyball. I love to play, I love getting better at it and seeing my teammates thrive and win, it's like an adrenaline rush even if I'm just watching from the sidelines. But I could never be like them."

"Me neither," Osamu agrees.

Yamaguchi's phone rings, interrupting their conversation. Yachi's name flits across the screen, and Yamaguchi sighed a laugh. "Sorry, I've gotta pick this up. Our new manager is a worrywart."

Osamu waves it off, laying back against the back of the bench again. "It's fine."

Sliding his thumb over the button, Yamaguchi picks up the call. "Hey, Yachi."

" _Where are you?! Are you okay?! You've been gone over an hour!_ "

"I'm fine, Yachi," he laughs, glancing at Osamu from the corner of his eye. "I just ran into someone and we've been talking. I'm not hurt, I promise. I'll be back soon, okay?"

" _How long is soon?! What if Tsukishima wakes up?!_ "

"He won't wake up, he sleeps like the dead." He glances at his phone screen. "Get some sleep, Yachi, we have to be on the bus in a few hours and I promise when you get up I'll be back and ready to go home. Okay?"

Yachi sighed shakily. " _Promise?_ "

"Promise."

" _Okay. I'll see you in the morning?_ "

"You'll see me in the morning," he confirms. "Goodnight, Yachi."

" _Night, Yamaguchi!_ "

He hung up, chuckling to himself. Yamaguchi glanced over at Osamu again. "Looks like I've gotta get going. Sorry I can't stay any longer. This was... nice."

"Yeah," Osamu agreed. His eyes met Yamaguchi's, and Yamaguchi felt his breath hitch in his throat from the gaze set upon him. "Thanks. For letting me vent. Really, Yamaguchi, thank you."

Yamaguchi smiled. "No problem. I haven't really told anyone about how much I like the stars, either. It's always been something sort of private, and Tsukki is probably the only one who knows, so I guess I can thank you too for being someone I felt comfortable enough with to tell."

"It was only fair, since ya let me unload my secrets on ya."

"Still, thanks, Osamu."

"Yer welcome, Yamaguchi."

"Tadashi," he said. "I feel it's only fair since you said to use your first name, so you can use mine. If we ever run into each other again, that is."

"I'm sure we'll see ya again in next year's Spring Tournament. 'Tsumu's determined to beat yer team now. He wont stop til he does. And with him bein' captain next year, it's gonna be hell."

"Well, then I'll see you next year," Yamaguchi smiles.

"See ya then, Tadashi."

And as Yamaguchi gets up to leave, Osamu calls out to him again. "Good luck with yer manager!"

A loud laugh leaves his throat and he waves back at Osamu before starting his walk back to the Jaybird Inn, hopefully to get at least a little bit of sleep before they have to board the bus in the morning back to Miyagi. And if his thoughts on the walk back were filled with eyes like storm clouds and a certain smooth, bass-like voice, well then that was his own business.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There are a few things in this story that I will be adding/changing of my own. I'll be changing Yamaguchi's timeskip profession, because I personally think he can do better than working at a home electronics company, and I'll also be adding in some original characters here and there! I'm taking liberties with this story that will hopefully pay off, and I'm very excited about writing this!!


	2. Hello Again

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Yamaguchi Tadashi hadn't told anyone about his talk with Miya Osamu a year ago. Yachi had questioned him that next morning when they got back to Karasuno, but he only repeated what he'd told her on the phone and said that he had just run into someone he recognized and they got too invested in talking that they forgot the time. To his relief, she'd reluctantly accepted the answer and promised not to tell anyone about his midnight walk by himself, which saved him a lecture from both Coach Ukai and Takeda-sensei.

To say that he hadn't thought back on their midnight talk would be a lie, because many times throughout the past year, he'd found his mind wandering back and trying to remember the lowness of Osamu's voice and the hints of worry behind it when he spoke of telling his twin about his decision to quit volleyball after school. Yamaguchi wondered how Atsumu took the news, if Osamu had told him yet. Had Osamu been right in the way that Atsumu would not support his choice? Was he wrong? It plagued his mind more often than it should have, considering he and Osamu were only strangers who were both sulking over their own issues that night, who bumped into each other by chance and took advantage of the encounter.

Sometimes Yamaguchi wondered how Osamu was doing. Had he gotten one of the jobs he'd spoken of? Started saving up for business school yet? Made up possible names for the restaurant he wanted to open one day? He wished that he had a way to stay in contact with Osamu, so he could have his questions answered, but that night in Tokyo had ended so abruptly that Yamaguchi hadn't stopped to consider that he would want to talk to Osamu again.

He knew they'd see each other again one day eventually. Karasuno was determined to get to Nationals again this year, and Yamaguchi knew for a fact that with all of Inarizaki's talented players, there was no doubt that they would be there whether or not Karasuno was. Both Miya twins, who had a minus tempo quick attack like no other he'd seen; Suna Rintarou, whom he'd remembered would spike using his entire upper body as a way to control the blockers on the opposing team so they couldn't shut him down; Riseki Heisuke, a pinch server like himself who was very talented as well. And he knew that there would no doubt be even more talent on the court this year even if their third years had graduated the year before. Just like Karasuno was powerful once more, no longer known as the 'flightless crows' as they had been in the previous years.

And for the second year in a row, Karasuno made it to the Spring Nationals. Once again, set to play against Inarizaki.

"Hinata, you _dumbass_! Calm down or you'll mess up your spikes!"

"I'm fine, Bakageyama! Just send me another one!"

Yamaguchi sighed a chuckle at his friends usual behavior. Even after over a year, almost two of playing together, they never changed. Ever the court monsters, always ready and excited to play.

Before they'd set up for warmups, Yachi had been fretting over Hinata trying to make sure that he wasn't doing the same thing as he did last year in the match against Kamomedai. Hinata had gone for days feeling feverish and hadn't told anyone only because he wanted to stay on the court as long as possible, and he ended up collapsing in the middle of the second set. It had scared them all, and now their manager was always making sure that Hinata wasn't overworking himself. She took his temperature before every match, she made sure he drank enough water during timeouts, anything she could think of to make sure that his mistake from last year wouldn't happen again.

It was funny to see Hinata pretending to be annoyed at their friend while she was around, whining about how he could take care of himself, only for him to whine later that it wasn't fair how Yachi took better care of him than even his mom did. A joke, obviously, but the second years often liked to tease Yachi by calling her the 'team mom' because of all her anxiousness about each of their health.

Even their third years thought that it was amusing how Yachi would stutter and stumble under the second years jokes about her motherly nature. Ennoshita, Kinoshita, Narita, Tanaka, and Nishinoya were all third years now. With Ennoshita as their new captain, Tanaka as their ace, and Nishinoya still playing the libero position while he trained with a new first year who would take over after he graduates. 

"Idiots," Tsukishima mutters. "They're both idiots."

"I swear they share a single brain cell between the two of them and it only works like twenty-five percent of the time," Yamaguchi laughed.

Tsukki scoffs. "Twenty-five? I think you're giving them too much credit, Yamaguchi."

"Yeah, you're probably right."

Minutes later, Yamaguchi was in line behind the third years while each of the Karasuno members were warming up their spikes before they started their match. Coach would toss a ball out, Nishinoya would bump it to the setter, and Kageyama would set it for them to run up and spike to the other side of the court.

Yamaguchi was a middle blocker when he played on court, though sometimes he would be subbed out for one of the first years and subbed back in as the pinch server, like he was last year. He was pretty decent at blocking, but definitely not as good as Tsukishima. More often than not during their matches, he would share a look with Tsukki and wait for his signal before they would change up the blocking direction to redirect a ball to get to where Nishinoya could easily receive it. Tsukki was their most talented middle blocker, with Hinata being not far from him, and Yamaguchi was only decent. He was a better server than blocker.

It wasn't like Yamaguchi couldn't spike a ball, but he really only ever did it in practice or if Kageyama decided to signal to the rest that they would be doing a synched attack. But when he did get to spike, he always felt great afterward if he managed to score a point for the team.

Yamaguchi moved to the front of the line, and Coach Ukai's whistle blew again, a short trill that signaled his turn to start running up to the net. He tossed the ball out toward Nishinoya, and Yamaguchi took off toward the net. He spared a glance toward Kageyama, who's eyes were only on the ball and stretching his fingers out to prepare to set, and Yamaguchi's feet left the floor.

He felt different being in the air for a spike rather than a block. Blocking gave him a sort of sense of satisfaction, whether he shuts down a ball or just does a one touch to slow the ball's trajectory so his team can receive it. Spiking felt different. The sting of his palm afterward that fades in seconds, leaving him to want that feeling back again and wait for the moment he does. It was a kind of rush he hadn't had the chance to feel in a real game in his first year, only in practice, and that didn't give him the sort of adrenaline rush that it did in a match. The anticipation of whether or not the opponent would be able to receive, watching it fall to hit the court when they couldn't reach it on time, seeing them dive to the floor beneath them and stare down at their frustrated faces.

Perhaps it was a twisted sort of satisfaction, but after his discussion with Osamu last year, Yamaguchi really had started thinking about where he'd be going with his future and decided that like him, he wasn't going to continue after high school. So while he still had the volleyball club and had a place with them, Yamaguchi would make the most of it.

The ball touched the tips of Kageyama's fingers, and in seconds, it was in front of Yamaguchi's palm and slamming to the other side of the net with a loud _boom_ that made Yamaguchi grin with glee.

Once his feet hit the court, Yamaguchi felt a shiver crawl up his spine. He turned his head to the right, feeling the weight of a gaze on his back, and his eyes met Miya Osamu's from across the gym. Inarizaki was readying and stretching before it was their turn to warm up after Karasuno finished, and Yamaguchi spotted a few new faces among the black and white jerseys, who he assumed were their new first years. Miya Atsumu, proudly wearing the number '1' jersey and Suna Rintarou next to him with the number '2', presumably his vice captain. 

Even from meters away, Osamu was as sharp as ever. The grey of both his eyes and his hair shone like the silver of a dull knife glinting in the lights of the stadium above them. Osamu's lips curled up in a teasing smirk as he mouthed a ' _nice kill_ ' in Yamaguchi's direction.

Yamaguchi chuckled and put two fingers in front of his eyes before pointing them at Osamu, as if to say ' _i'm watching you_ ', and the smirk Osamu wore turned to a feral grin that reminded Yamaguchi of a sly fox waiting to grab its prey from the shadows.

"Tadashi, move it, let's go!" Coach Ukai clapped his hands to get his attention, and Yamaguchi startled, his eyes breaking the steady stare they'd been locked in.

"Sorry, coach!"

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_I can't let it hit the floor_ , Yamaguchi's mind chanted. _I won't let it_.

And yet, no matter how many times he said the words in his mind, he could do nothing but watch as his arm was just slightly out of reach as he dove down, and his fingers were centimeters from the ball when leather touched wood, and Yamaguchi felt his heart drop from his chest when his hand followed shortly after and smacked into the court. His ears rang with the silence that followed, before the stadium was lit aflame with the sounds of cheers from Inarizaki's side.

They'd lost in straight sets, **0:2**. He should've been surprised at the lack of devastation he felt, like he'd experienced in the 2013 Spring Nationals after they lost to Kamomedai, but all he felt was just a sense of disappointment. Yet another time he couldn't do anything to keep his seniors on the court longer, like they deserved. He couldn't get them to the end.

His teammates who dove for the ball from other directions all made their way up off the floor and a hand reached down in front of Yamaguchi's face. He took the hand, accepting the assistance to get up and head over to line up with his team. Tanaka patted his back twice, and Yamaguchi couldn't look him in the eye when he saw the downcast look in them though he tried to stay as positive as he usually was.

"Damn it," he cursed, his face settling into a glare as he walked behind his seniors. "Damn it, damn it, _damn it_."

"It's alright, Tadashi," Ennoshita put a hand on his shoulder, squeezing tightly to emphasize his reassurance. "We played a good game, we tried our hardest, we gave our best. That's what matters in the end."

Yamaguchi felt himself relax, chuckling and glancing at his captain. "You sound like Daichi-san."

"Good," Ennoshita smirked. "That was the plan."

Both boys laughed, and Yamaguchi felt the tension leave his chest. The weight of the guilt from losing wasn't as intense as it was the year before, and he couldn't help but feel grateful for it. He'd felt like his soul was crushed last year, the breath left his lungs and he couldn't breathe when he saw one of his best friends collapse from exhaustion on the court. But no one had gotten hurt this year, they'd played better than they ever had in the last few months and probably in the last year, too. No collisions, like Daichi and Tanaka the year previous during the 2013 Interhigh Preliminaries. No finger injuries, like Tsukishima during their first ever match against Shiratorizawa when he blocked Ushijima Wakatoshi's spike. Everyone was safe and unharmed, maybe save their prides as players, but that couldn't be helped, since they would feel that no matter what if a game was lost on their end.

Yamaguchi stood in his designated place in the Karasuno lineup and bowed with the rest of his team, the words shared through everyone's lips as the others on the opposite side said the same, "Thank you for the game!"

Shaking hands with the opponent was something Yamaguchi used to feel weird about, during his first year. He rarely got to play on the court, being subbed in to serve here and there only before being subbed out when the other team scored, so shaking hands with an opponent then felt strange, considering he didn't really count himself as much of a player back then. But it was different now that he was a starter.

One after another, he shook the hands of Inarizaki's team members. Some faces he recognized from the previous year, some were new and obviously first years who were experiencing their first time at Nationals by the way their faces were lit with glee and excitement. He could remember feeling that way last year, when they'd won against Tsubakihara, and again when they'd beaten Inarizaki themselves, and _again_ with Nekoma, their sworn rivals. He knew the rush that it brought to win a game on the big court. And he knew that it was something he would never forget, even if he didn't get to next year, because there are always possibilities of something like that happening.

A jolt shot through his palm when the next opponent's hand he shook squeezed slightly rougher than the last. Yamaguchi looked up from where his gaze had previously been set on the interlocked hands, and he was met with a grinning Miya Osamu. 

He smiled, despite himself. "Good game, _Osamu_."

The way he accentuated the other's first name made both of them grin, remembering from their conversation last year that he preferred to go by it instead of his last since people often confused him and his brother. Osamu squeezed Yamaguchi's hand again slightly and sent him a chuckle. 

"Yes it was, _Tadashi_ ," Osamu said with mirth, seemingly also remembering that Yamaguchi had allowed him the use of his first name as well. 

Both knew that there were watchful eyes on them, attention brought to them by the strange familiarity the two seemed to have with one another when to their knowledge they hadn't ever interacted before. 

Their hands separated and Osamu clenched his fist and put it in front of Yamaguchi, who did the same and obliged Osamu with a fist bump, both of them ending it with a small laugh.

Once they'd finished shaking everyone's hands, Karasuno was finally heading toward where their bus was outside to take them back to their hotel, again staying at the Jaybird Inn like last year for a sense of comfort in somewhere most of them had been before. Yamaguchi had slung his volleyball bag over his shoulder and was walking next to Tsukki and the other second years, ready to board the bus before a voice called out to him.

"Oi, Tadashi!"

His head snapped around at the sound of Osamu yelling his name, and Yamaguchi knew that his friends were definitely going to be on his back with questions for the rest of the night. "Yeah?"

Osamu grinned and pointed a finger toward him, his other hand adjusting the strap of his bag so it wouldn't fall. "Meet me?"

A grin of his own made its way to his face, and Yamaguchi knew that for someone who had just lost a game at Nationals, he had smiled an awful lot since they'd left the gym. "Same time and place?"

"Ya better be there!"

"You got it!" he laughed, climbing onto the bus finally and taking his seat next to his best friend, who was giving him a weird stare. 

Hinata poked his head over his seat a few rows ahead of where Yamaguchi and Tsukki sat. "Yamaguchi, how do you know one of the Miya twins?! Are you two friends?!"

"Um..." Yamaguchi rubbed the back of his neck. "Kinda? Yeah."

Yachi gasped and shook her pointer finger at Yamaguchi. "Is that━?! Is he━?! When you━?!"

A laugh escaped him at her shocked tone and Yamaguchi nodded. "Yes, Yachi."

Tsukishima dug his eye mask out of his bag and slipped it over his face, leaning his head against the window. "I honestly don't care. You could have told me, though."

"Sorry, Tsukki," he chuckled. "We only talked once last year and never saw each other again. Just sat for about an hour because we ran into each other when I was out on a walk and he was getting food."

"Whatever."

More questions were fired his way before the coach yelled at them all to settle down until they got back to the hotel so they could rest for the night before they left for Miyagi again in the morning. But before that, Yamaguchi had someone to meet.


	3. We've Gotta Run

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

"Don't die."

"Tsukki, I'm going to a park."

"Yeah, but it's like, midnight!" Hinata cut in.

"It'll be fine," Yamaguchi insisted. "I did it last year and made it back alive, and I'm not going to be alone like I was for my walk last year, this is different."

"Tadashi's got a daaaate!" Nishinoya shook his shoulders teasingly. 

Yamaguchi spluttered, his face turning bright red that only made the others in the room laugh. "I-It's not a date! We're probably just going to catch up and stuff, talk about what he told me last year and how it went or whatever!"

"Oh, sharing secrets? How adorable," Tanaka cooed. "I ship it already."

"There's nothing to ship!"

"It sounds like a date, Yamaguchi-senpai," Ito Haruki, the first year that Nishinoya was training as a libero for next year, chuckled and agreed with his mentor. 

"Not you too, Ito! Come on, guys, it's not like that!"

"Yet."

"Kageyama, you're supposed to be on my side and not agree with them."

"It sounds like a date," Kageyama shrugged, tossing a ball repeatedly from where he was lying on his futon. 

"What do you know about dating, Kageyama?" Hinata cackled. "You can't even get a girlfriend."

"I could if I wanted to, dumbass! I don't see you trying to get one either!"

"Just don't die," Tsukki repeated. "Go, before they all keep harping on you about whatever this is."

"Thanks, Tsukki," Yamaguchi sighed. "I promise I won't die."

It took another few minutes, but Yamaguchi finally managed to slip out of the room that all of the boys were staying in so that he could go out and meet with Osamu at the park. He grabbed his scarf and gloves, slipping them on after he zipped up his jacket.

For a night in January, it wasn't as cold as one would normally think it would be. Yamaguchi supposed he got lucky with that this year, though he still wanted to bring extra stuff in case he got too cold. He didn't want to have to abruptly end his and Osamu's talks this time like he had last time, only the reason this time being because he got too cold. He would feel ridiculous.

Yachi yelled out from the kitchen, and Yamaguchi froze. "Yamaguchi!"

"Yeah?" he yelled back, hoping that he hadn't woken the coach or Takeda-sensei. Yachi poked her head through the kitchen entryway and gave him a false glare, and he had to hold back a chuckle at how non-intimidating she looked though she was obviously trying to be.

"Hourly updates. Got it? I won't call this time but I want to make sure you're okay."

Yamaguchi smiled and nodded. "Hourly updates. Got it. I'll even set a timer, alright?"

"Good. Now, have fun on your date!"

"It's _not a date_!"

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

"Tsumu, leave me alone."

"How the hell do ya know Karasuno's pinch server?!"

"None of yer business, that's how. Can I go now?"

"No! How do ya know him well enough to be on a first name basis? How do ya know each other? How long have ya been fraternizin' with the enemy behind my back? Do you know Shouyou-kun, too? What about Tobio-kun?"

"Yer literally such a hypocrite, calling the other Karasuno second years by their first names, too."

"That's different!"

"No it's not, dumbass!" Osamu groaned and sent a pleading glance toward his friends. "Rin, Gin, help me out here."

"I'm kinda curious too," Suna shrugged. "It's just weird. You only met like once last year when we played Karasuno, but you never said anything about actually knowing him."

Ginjima shrugged. "I'm with Sunarin on this one."

"We talked once after they lost against Kamomedai. I was out gettin' food, he was on a walk. _Can I go now_?"

"Whatever," Suna shrugged again. "Go for it."

"No!" Atsumu stopped him again, and Osamu sent him a glare. "What did ya talk about? I wanna know."

"None. Of. Yer. Business," he repeated shortly, hoping to emphasize his point to his brother.

"Nuh-uh, it totally is! You owe me for quittin' volleyball."

"I don't owe you shit. I'm leavin'."

"Samu! At least take a jacket, you ass!"

Osamu grabbed Atsumu's jacket instead of his own, grinning and sending his brother the middle finger before walking out the door into the cold. "See ya later, prick!"

"Hey! Don't flip me off! That's━Samu! Don't run away from me, get back here! Gimme back my jacket! _Yer so dead_!"

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Yamaguchi was the first to arrive at the familiar park bench that he and Osamu had sat at the year before, talking about what they would be doing in their futures after high school and sharing secrets they hadn't told anyone before. The park was nearly empty, save a couple of people here and there walking with their noses in their phones and swerving to miss cracks in the concrete to not trip over them, which slightly amazed Yamaguchi because he would've stumbled over them all if it were him.

He pulled out his own phone and sent a quick text to Yachi. **[** _Made it to the park, I'll check in within the next hour!_ **]**

Yachi sent back, **[** _You better! The others said they were gonna call you soon to check in despite what you told me, but idk when. Have fun!_ **]**

When he glanced up again to look around and see if Osamu was almost there or not, Yamaguchi saw Osamu jogging toward him with a grin on his face. Yamaguchi raised his arm to wave and a smile of his own formed from his lips, but before he could greet him, Osamu took hold of his arm and pulled him away from the park bench. 

"We gotta go!"

"Where are we going?!"

"I pissed Tsumu off and he's been chasin' me since I left the hotel, so we're runnin' from him!"

Yamaguchi laughed and ran beside Osamu, who was still gripping onto his arm so they wouldn't be separated.

Their surroundings blurred as Osamu and Yamaguchi took off through the streets of Tokyo, weaving around people when they were in their way, frantically apologizing if they bumped into them. Once or twice the two had almost tripped over their own feet, but the other was there to make sure they didn't fall so that they could keep running away from Atsumu from however far behind them that he was.

"Oi, Samu! Where the hell did ya go?!"

Both of them laughed and Yamaguchi spotted somewhere they could hide, dragging Osamu over to a crowd watching some performers dancing. He pushed through people as gently as he could so he wouldn't be being too rude, and Osamu was right behind him, looking over the crowd to make sure that Atsumu wasn't still following them. Their breathing was heavy and labored from exertion and the two shared a glance before bursting into laughter, ignoring the others in the crowd who shushed them to watch the performers.

To be polite after interrupting, Osamu dragged Yamaguchi to the front of the crowd and left some money in the donation basket laid out for the performers to collect funds, and Yamaguchi dug in his pocket to get some out to leave as well. 

"Samu! I see you!"

Osamu cackled and he and Yamaguchi took off again.

And at what couldn't have been a more worse time, Yamaguchi's phone rang. He held onto Osamu's hand with one of his own and fished his phone out of his back pocket with the other, holding it up to his ear.

"Hello?" Yamaguchi tried to sound calm despite his giggles and overall breathlessness.

" _You're not dead_ ," Tsukishima said from the other end of the line, and Yamaguchi laughed again.

"I'm not dead, Tsukki," he confirmed, hearing others sigh from Tsukki's side of the call and he assumed that the others heard him and that Tsukki probably had him on speakerphone.

A familiar shout was heard from somewhere behind them and Yamaguchi let out another giggle. It sounded closer than it had last time. Forgetting that he was still on the phone, he glanced around before pointing in front of him and Osamu. "Turn there!"

"What?!" Osamu shouted back.

"Samu, turn there!" he pointed again, sparing a look behind him and seeing Atsumu running after them with his gaze fixed on his twin brother. "Shit, there he is! Go, go, go, go!"

" _Yo, Tadashi, you alright there, bud?_ " Tanaka spoke through his speaker and startled Yamaguchi, who suddenly remembered that he had picked up his phone call for his teammates' check in. 

He and Osamu turned down a lit alleyway, jogging toward the other end that led to a busy-looking street where they could easily get away with hiding in plain sight. "I'm good! Just uh, running from a psycho, nothing unusual."

Osamu let out a loud laugh at the words and Yamaguchi broke into more giggles of his own. Their hands tightened on one another and they came to a tired stop at the other end of the alley, taking shelter underneath the porch roof of a restaurant. A customer walked out with a bag of takeout in his hand, and both of the panting boys sighed at the feeling of warmth coming from inside the building before the door closed again.

" _You're what?!_ " his teammates shouted.

"You think we lost him?" he ignored them.

"Probably. Give him ten minutes or so."

"Wanna get food while we wait for him to catch up?"

Both of them grinned in agreement.

" _Helloooo?! What's going on, Tadashi?!_ "

"Oh, yeah, phone, uh," Yamaguchi stuttered, embarrassed that he'd forgotten his friends had called him in the middle of their little escapade running away from Osamu's angry twin brother. "He's not an _actual_ psycho. It's just a peeved Miya Atsumu, no worries. We've been running for a while. Nothing actually dangerous."

" _Because running through the streets of Tokyo at night is totally_ not _dangerous_ ," Ennoshita teased. 

"Okay, point made and heard," Yamaguchi said. "But━Just think of it like when Kageyama chases Hinata around the gym when he says something stupid. Yeah? See? Not life-threatening. Anyway, we're gonna get food, so I'll talk to you guys whenever I get back."

" _Don't forget to check in with Yachi-senpai_!" one of the first years chimes.

"I won't!" he promises, hanging up the call.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

"I didn't think we'd start off the night running from my brother," Osamu said after swallowing a bite of his food. "Sorry 'bout that."

"It's okay," Yamaguchi waved him off. "It was kinda fun anyway. Does he um, does he━"

"Know I'm quittin' volleyball after this season? Yeah. Told him last year."

"How did he take it?"

"Not good, but he seems slightly more okay with it now that he's decided to make it into a competition to see who will have the happier future," he rolled his eyes, taking another bite of his food.

"That seems a bit much."

"Yeah. That's Tsumu for ya. Any progress on the astronomy thing?"

Yamaguchi flushed at the fact that Osamu remembered his habit of studying the stars. It had been a year since their last talk, but it seemed that neither of them had forgotten anything about that night. "A little bit. I've been saving up the money to pay for university in a couple years, splitting paychecks from my job between a bank account and my wallet."

"Ya got a job? Where at?"

"This little store in Miyagi called Shimada Mart. My mentor, the one who taught me how to do the jump float serve, he's the owner and offered me a job while I'm still in high school. I have shifts every weekday after practice unless we're out of town for training camps or matches."

"That jump float," Osamu shook his head. "Freakin' deadly. Do you aim for the net every time or is that an accident or somethin'?"

Both of them chuckled and Yamaguchi grinned. "I aim for the top of the net so it will go over, but it will still trip up the other team to make them break their formation. Gives us an upper hand. Anyway, enough about me, what about you? How's the business school search going?"

"Turns out ya don't actually need a business degree to open a business of yer own, so I'm thinkin' of just workin' a job until I got the money to pay for an empty place where I can open a restaurant. Saves me a lot of time. Instead of wastin' four years gettin' a degree I don't even need, I can just work until I got the money to do what I need to do."

"Got any names picked out?"

"Nah, not yet. Every time I try to think of somethin' I draw a blank."

"What about something simple? It doesn't need to be overly extravagant or anything, right? Unless that's your style."

"Tsumu's the extra one," Osamu snorted. "He's gotten offers from pro teams already and now he walks around actin' like some big hotshot like he's already won the Olympics or somethin'."

"I can only imagine," Yamaguchi nodded. "I'm sure if Kageyama or Hinata got early offers to go pro right after high school they'd be the same way. But Hinata's got other plans already, so I doubt that's happening for him. Maybe Kageyama, though. The Schweiden Alders already have their eyes on him, he's talked to a couple of recruits already, and we're only in our second year."

"Sounds like they've got it all figured out. Where's the shrimp goin' if not pro? That'll piss Tsumu off so much after he made that stupid declaration on the court last year."

"Says he's got plans to go to Brazil and play beach volleyball for a while so he can train in all positions and not just one. Wants to make his skills better so he can be on par with Kageyama. There's a coach already waiting there for him, ready to mentor him and everything. He's just gotta finish out this year and next, and take one more year off to prepare before he heads off."

"Brazil, huh? Sounds crazy. Heard it's crazy hot there, like, all the time."

"I think that's one of the things he's looking forward to the most," Yamaguchi laughed. "He keeps asking us if we'll visit him but by that time, we'll all be broke college students surviving off of instant cup ramen and pre-made rice balls in the microwave. He's insane."

"Don't eat that instant ramen crap," Osamu says. "Or the pre-made rice balls. I can make ya some whenever. I do it all the time for Tsumu anyway."

"Tohoku University is in Miyagi, Osamu. You live in Hyōgo, as far as I know from when we've done research on your school. That couldn't work."

"I'd find a way," he waved off the mention of the distance. "Can't be that far. One of us would just take a train or somethin'."

"As long as we don't have to run from your brother again, I'm fine with that."

Laughs broke out between them that had the rest of the people in the restaurant turning their gazes to them in confusion but the two only kept eating and talking, glancing out the window beside their booth here and there to make sure that Atsumu hadn't found them yet. Briefly, the timer on Yamaguchi's phone went off that set an hour mark and he prattled off a quick message to Yachi before shoving his phone back in his pocket so he wouldn't be distracted.

As more time passed, Osamu found that he was having a lot more fun than he expected he would. It was originally a plan for the two to just have another talk like they'd had the year before, catch up on the things that they'd told each other and how it had been going over the past year, but Osamu was quickly realizing that he didn't want the night to end yet.

"Hey, Tadashi," he said out of the blue, drawing Yamaguchi's attention away from his food. "Wanna head out for a walk?"

"Sure," Yamaguchi shrugged. "Where are we going?"

"Anywhere," Osamu said, and he knew that he meant exactly that. He just wanted to spend more time with Yamaguchi before he had to go back to his hotel and prepare for his game the next day and Karasuno was sent home to Miyagi once more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you've all noticed by now, but this fic will be like... 100% fluff. I love angst, but I'm absolutely horrible at writing it. So this fic is going to be OsaYama fluff galore.


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